Are we all going mad?
🌍 When the World Goes Mad, Tend to Your Fault Lines
Living in Denmark, it’s easy to feel protected from the turmoil erupting elsewhere. Our lives here are often peaceful. The skies above us remain calm. The streets are orderly. It’s tempting to think, “It doesn’t really concern us — it’s all out there.”
And yet…
The world is cracking.
This morning, I read a post from a friend, Ole Gerstrom, about the Strait of Hormuz, Iran, Russia, China, and the looming possibility of nuclear escalation. Missiles, drones, economic meltdowns — all of it pouring into our consciousness like a rising tide. It sounds like something out of a dystopian novel, but it’s not fiction. It’s here. It's now. It's real.
World leaders have gone mad.
But do we — as individuals — have to follow suit?
I say no.
No, we don’t have to drown in the madness.
No, we don’t have to be swept up in the energy of domination, control, fear, or reaction.
We can do something quieter — and more powerful.
We can work on our own fault lines.
Those unseen places within us where resentment still simmers.
Where fear still drives.
Where the past still dictates how we show up in the present.
That’s where change begins.
As the American cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead once said:
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
I would take it one step further:
Change doesn’t begin with a group. It begins with one person — one heart — choosing a different path.
Choosing kindness over chaos.
Firmness over fear.
Clarity over confusion.
Just like the rose — whose softness is protected by her thorns — we too can hold both tenderness and strength.
There is no rose without her thorns.
There is no peace without the courage to stand for it — not just out there, but in here, where it all begins.
Let us not look away. Let us not despair. Let us not become numb.
Let us connect — through your comments made below, Messenger or email — to start the conversation going.
My email is lian.henriksen2009@gmail.com.
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN - I APPRECIATE YOUR COMMENT 😁😊😘
Resistance does not start with big words
Resistance does not start with big words
but with small actions
like a storm with a soft rustling in the garden
or the cat that gets mad
like wide rivers
with a small source
hidden in the forest
like a sea of fire
with the same match
that lights a cigarette
like love with a look
a touch something you notice in a voice
asking yourself a question
that is how resistance begins
and then asking that question to someone else.
from the work of Remco Campert (1929) – a dutch poet that you made remember me
In 1971, my grandmother stated her case for cooperation as fundamental to the survival of mankind. It was printed, has a copyright and given to her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. At the time (1971), my uncle wrote in the preface:
The problems facing mankind today are many and diverse and more complex than in the past.
It was in that context that an nonagenarian, Mexican mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, eloquently states her case for cooperation as fundamental to mankind. It is titled:
Cooperation – Not Domination
Your statement above reminded me of her in many ways, but especially your words: ‘we don’t t have to be swept up in the energy in the energy of domination, control, fear or reaction’.
I believe we have long lines of ancestors of ancestors guiding us on.
It was serendipitous for me to read your post. I hope to hear more and perhaps connect.
Sometimes I wonder how the world would feel if we stopped letting fear lead.
I want to be part of something gentler,
where we choose peace, again and again,
and meet life with love, not control.
Together.
With open hearts and quiet strength.
That’s the path I long to walk, thank you for the gentle reminder ❤️